Enfield Town v Whitehawk

[No bull Towner]

The form is very up and down at the moment but this was to be expected with a new set up. Yes we can aspire to play offs this season but should by no means be expecting it and be so deflated with where we are and start blaming individuals. We win, lose and draw as a team surely. The keeper is not responsible for all the defensive errors of those in front of him and cannot be expected to carry that burden by singling him out like some are doing. He has made some errors and cost a few goals but he has also shown his ability and going from hero to villain is uncalled for I think. Are we singling out other individual player's failures in the same way? No, and rightly not or else we would be writing pages and pages on x missed 3 scoring opportunities, y can't head a ball to save his life, z is far too slow etc etc. The team will be more disappointed than we are with some results but to knock their confidence and apportion blame on individuals just isn't the way to pick them up to move on positively. For heavens sake we are still 2nd from top not from bottom. Get behind the team and management, take the rough with the smooth and give them time to gel more and to develop and refine their style and the consistency will improve with time. Up the Town

[Barney]

Really disappointing to give up a two goal lead twice, but we have to accept that we're not going to win every game, and there are some decent sides in this league (my sources at the game said that a win for us would have been harsh on them). That said, I'd rather be finishing strongly, and snatching a point from a losing position, as it feels like we've gained something, rather than thrown it away (although we'd all no doubt be complaining about our slow starts to games in that case).

Delighted to be in 2nd place, and we are finding ways to score goals in most games, which is great. Gavin put so much emphasis in his early interviews about being hard to break down, and defensively solid that I'm sure this is frustrating him more than anyone. Set piece goals should be avoidable in the most part, and conceding the number of goals we are is very concerning if we want to maintain our league position. I'm a fan of Okocha, he seems to be in the right place at the right time most of the time, and is quite a calm presence at the back - it might have been that losing him at half time unsettled us a bit, but ultimately we defend as a team, no defence in the world is going to be able to cope if there are free runners from midfield, gaps between the defensive lines when we're out of possession or two vs ones. Hopefully we get back to what we were doing earlier in the season and maintain that defensive shape and discipline, but without sacrificing the goals that we seem to be scoring at will of late.

It's a good shout about Rhys not being vocal enough - not something I'd noticed as I'm generally at the side towards our attacking third, but agree completely that it helps when a keeper is barking orders for 90 minutes, if only to make players aware of runners, when they're not marking etc.

[Father Jack]

10 hours ago, No bull Towner said:

The form is very up and down at the moment but this was to be expected with a new set up. Yes we can aspire to play offs this season but should by no means be expecting it and be so deflated with where we are and start blaming individuals. We win, lose and draw as a team surely. The keeper is not responsible for all the defensive errors of those in front of him and cannot be expected to carry that burden by singling him out like some are doing. He has made some errors and cost a few goals but he has also shown his ability and going from hero to villain is uncalled for I think. Are we singling out other individual player's failures in the same way? No, and rightly not or else we would be writing pages and pages on x missed 3 scoring opportunities, y can't head a ball to save his life, z is far too slow etc etc. The team will be more disappointed than we are with some results but to knock their confidence and apportion blame on individuals just isn't the way to pick them up to move on positively. For heavens sake we are still 2nd from top not from bottom. Get behind the team and management, take the rough with the smooth and give them time to gel more and to develop and refine their style and the consistency will improve with time. Up the Town

Welcome to the Board NBT - a cracking first post!

[The Crowing Cockerel]

12 hours ago, No bull Towner said:

The form is very up and down at the moment but this was to be expected with a new set up. Yes we can aspire to play offs this season but should by no means be expecting it and be so deflated with where we are and start blaming individuals. We win, lose and draw as a team surely. The keeper is not responsible for all the defensive errors of those in front of him and cannot be expected to carry that burden by singling him out like some are doing. He has made some errors and cost a few goals but he has also shown his ability and going from hero to villain is uncalled for I think. Are we singling out other individual player's failures in the same way? No, and rightly not or else we would be writing pages and pages on x missed 3 scoring opportunities, y can't head a ball to save his life, z is far too slow etc etc. The team will be more disappointed than we are with some results but to knock their confidence and apportion blame on individuals just isn't the way to pick them up to move on positively. For heavens sake we are still 2nd from top not from bottom. Get behind the team and management, take the rough with the smooth and give them time to gel more and to develop and refine their style and the consistency will improve with time. Up the Town

Lovely to meet you, Rhys's Dad! 😜

[No bull Towner]

47 minutes ago, The Crowing Cockerel said:

Lovely to meet you, Rhys's Dad! 😜

Like your humour but definitely not

[djwilf]

Very interesting take

 

Going on the football we've seen over the past few seasons......think we have to consider where we are.

Overall, playing a better standard/style of football.

We lost our 1st choice forward within first few games of the season

Kept a number of our squad from last season but also have new centre back partnership, new rb, new forwards and at least two new midfielders.

If any of our fans could honestly say we wouldn't have taken being 2nd in the league....a new and very exciting Cup competition coming up next week that the players must be super excited about then I would be amazed.

We have completely new coaching staff and we all see how upset fans get at higher levels when their new management lose a game or 3.

Half a new team and overall things have been positive.

We have a manager who speaks so well, doesn't pull any punches and I'm honestly not sure there's anyone else I'd want in charge at this level with the resources we have.   As has been stated many times our attendances and predictions by the betting companies pre season would suggest we should be doing much worse than we are....perhaps someone can remind me where we were predicted to finish....I think it was 14th???   Our attendances are currently 10th in the league.

Haven't made it down for the past few games but have been following as best I could.....we are 2nd in the table.  We are 2nd highest scorers in the league.....have the 2nd best goal difference and Saturday v Chatham should be a very exciting prospect along with our Danish opponents next week.   Allowing late goals is frustrating of course, but a bit of perspective please!

 

PS, anyone who thinks our No1 is the issue in conceding goals obviously hasn't seen enough.   He's kept us in games this years and whilst he may not be the area commanding presence, I've seen enough to know that he'll help us win more games than we'll lose.   He has never been the problem in points dropped.

Just a sobering through to finish....would you rather be where we are.....or perhaps in the position of some of our local opponents:    Haringey, Potters Bar and that Amber team up the road?   18th, 20th and 21st in the League!!

Think our glass is definitely more than half full.

[The Crowing Cockerel]

djwilf, I agree completely! We're winning games and often doing so in style. We have a striker brimming with confidence (who I will be surprised if we don't receive offers for in the coming months,) and were it not for a heavily-bankrolled Hornchurch we'd probably be top of the pile. In short, I'm delighted. I'm also excited as to what Gavin can potentially achieve longer-term. It would, however, be nice to keep a few more clean sheets. I don't blame the keeper - its the defence. Watching the 4th Whitehawk goal again and seeing a completely absent central defence is simply not good enough. We are probably 2 defenders away from having a very strong shot at promotion this season. I get the feeling Gavin will stick with what he's got for the time being, but I hope he's got an eye out for a centre half or two.

[Out_Of_Towner]

If you think our defence is bad take a look at Chestnuts v Kingstonian highlights . I am looking forward to boxing day already . Looks like Chestnuts are back to having sparse crowds again without decent away support propping up the gate receipts .  

Cheshunt FC VS Kingstonian FC Highlights – Cheshunt Football Club

[lovely stuff]

Another poor penalty decision against us at 4-2. Our keeper got to the ball first and knocks it sideways with his hand. If that hadn't have been given we would have probably seen the game out comfortably. 

[andyetfc]

On 24/11/2023 at 11:07, Out_Of_Towner said:

If you think our defence is bad take a look at Chestnuts v Kingstonian highlights . I am looking forward to boxing day already . Looks like Chestnuts are back to having sparse crowds again without decent away support propping up the gate receipts .  

Cheshunt FC VS Kingstonian FC Highlights – Cheshunt Football Club

670 at Cheshunt today.